IOKROPS Wins Presidential Award at Agri-Food Contest for Physical AI Harvesting Robots

IOCROPS Leads Agricultural Innovation with Physical AI, Honored with Three Presidential Awards IOCROPS, a specialized agricultural robot company led by CEO Jo Jin-hyung and based on Physical AI, firmly established itself as a leader in agricultural technology innovation by simultaneously sweeping three awards, including the Presidential Award, the NH Nonghyup Chairman's Award, and the CJ CEO Award, at the '2025 Agri-Food Startup Contest'. Behind this remarkable achievement were not only advanced robot technology and expanded profitability of the technology business beyond farm operations but also its global competitiveness, which successfully introduced its solutions to two large overseas greenhouses just four months after entering the North American market. IOCROPS successfully commercialized 'HERMAI', an AI greenhouse autonomous monitoring robot, in 2023 and is now accelerating towards the goal of commercializing Physical AI-based harvesting robots by 2026. 'Physical AI', where robots perceive and act autonomously in physical environments, is gaining attention as a core technology to solve the severe labor shortage problem in the agricultural sector. Currently, based on the know-how accumulated from directly operating smart farms across 21,000 pyeong (approximately 17.15 acres) nationwide, IOCROPS has supplied various smart farm ICT solutions, including AI-based autonomous robots, data-driven workforce management, and remote monitoring, to over 400 farms and agricultural technology centers nationwide. This year, the smart farm solution segment is expected to see 2.5 times revenue growth compared to the previous year. CEO Jo Jin-hyung emphasized, "The future of agricultural robot development lies in Physical AI. By utilizing imitation learning and Physical AI to enable robots to flexibly respond to unexpected on-site situations, the completeness of farm work automation and its commercialization timeline can be significantly accelerated." The company is currently pursuing Series B funding for the advancement of Physical AI harvesting robots, the establishment of fully unmanned automated farms, and global expansion, with plans to pilot Physical AI-based harvesting robots in its own farms in the first quarter of next year. IOCROPS is rewriting the future of agriculture with its innovative technology.